Yearly Pause

So as I am getting ready to send out the Zoe Announcements, I have decided that maybe I will start trying to do the yearly Lindberg update at the same time so that I don't have to send out so much at Christmas time when I and everyone else at the post office is so busy.

So I started writing the yearly letter.

I searched back over all the posts from the last year.... thanking God that I had the blog to look back over, since thinking about the last year is usually half the battle for me. Anyways, I realized from the pictures that all of Savannah's eye surgeries were one year ago. In one sense it was a "It has been a year already?" and then in the other breath, "I can't believe it has only been a year, it seems so long ago."

The last few weeks I have been coming to grips with her eyes more and more. I finally realized a lot of the patching issues we have are Mom related, and the fact that I didn't want the reminder of the glaucoma (in the form of the patch over the eye) staring back at me from a kid who didn't want to wear the patch in the first place. So in the end we just didn't patch. Now, though, we are starting to do so more and more. Yes, I have to chase my daughter down and explain that there are lots of things in life that are hard to do for everyone and that yes it will cause you to have to work harder at things that usually come so easy. But that in the end it is worth it if you stick with it.... and then I repeat it all again, back to myself, trying to convince myself that it really is for the greater good.

But this morning Savannah still had her patch on from last night, and it reminded me to once again try and make a connection at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind(FSDB)here in St Augustine. I had tried once last year and was unsuccessful before becoming distracted by other things in life, but this time I found the correct person to email.

Within 2-3 hours I had a response, and by the end of today contact was made for Savannah to receive help from two or three different State/Federal organizations. The first organization is provided through FSDB and is what is known as Parent Advisor Meetings. Basically it means that a certified Low Vision specialist will arrange to come to the house and help me with finding activities for Savannah and Mom to do that help her accommodate to the patch and not fight it as much. The second is possible admittance into the part time preschool at FSDB, but this one is based on certain criteria that has to be met and it is unclear as to whether or not she will qualify. Then the third is to set up an "account" with the Division of Blind Services, which can provide any accommodation equipment and special personnel as needed anytime throughout Savannah's life (from what I can figure) ranging from simple physical accommodations to help with IEP (Individualized Education Plans) meetings if/when she should enter the public school system.

Now if any of that really made sense to any of you readers, well you must be one smart cookie, either that or have a background in teaching or you have a special needs child. Sometimes I think I speak Greek when it comes to all this.

But the important thing is that we are finally at the point where we are moving to the next stage of this "journey". A journey that I never wanted to take... one that I never thought I would be taking with my own daughter. Hopefully we will all make it through the journey too... in one piece.